Wind and Amanda’s Cello, The

The Wind and Amanda’s Cello
Written by Alison Lohans, Illustrated by Sarah Shortliffe
Published by Shadowpaw Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$23.99 ISBN 9781998273157

It’s been such fun watching Regina author (and musician) Alison Lohans successfully focus her literary talents in so many different directions. The well-known multi-genre author has just released her 31^st book, and it’s a standout among the many children’s books that cross my desk each year.

Firstly, Lohans knows how to tell a story—whether it’s a novel for young adults, an early-reader chapter book or an illustrated children’s book like her recent release, The Wind and Amanda’s Cello—and it begins with language. In the opening spread of this colourful softcover, we read that “the wind grew restless.” Personification is effective in all writing, but perhaps particularly so when a writer’s engaging young readers. Sound is the most critical element in this book, and Lohans writes about it like she’s making it—a conductor directing an orchestra. We hearthat life-like wind as it “whooshed by cars on the highway; it rattled gates and scattered old leaves on the sidewalk.” Note how the author uses specific details—another hallmark of quality writing.

The wind is indeed a powerful character in this story, and it finds its way into young Amanda’s cello, where it “whistled between the strings” and into “the dark inside of Amanda’s cello, where it hummed as Amanda played.” The girl immediately knows that “Something strange is going on,” and, as if also affected by the wind’s magic, her cat makes its own music as it “walked across the [piano] keys.” The girl and her pet play a sweet duet, but that doesn’t stop Amanda’s mother (or Amanda’s father) from telling Amanda that she mustn’t “forget [her] scales.” I admire the realism.

Others are also positively affected by Amanda’s humming cello—her orchestra mates, the paperboy, and neighbour Luke Garcia who “worked on his motorcycle in the driveway next door” and “forgot to turn on his radio when Amanda was playing her cello.” Time moves along in this delightful story, and when a baby girl joins the family, Amanda’s wind-swirled cello soothes the infant and helps her sleep.

As Amanda ages, music teachers insist that she’s outgrowing the cello and she tries several new ones, but, yikes, “not a single one of them hummed.”

This book’s also a treasure because of the lovely watercolour illustrations provided by Sarah Shortliffe. There’s a profound difference between books commercially “illustrated” via computer (the wide-eyed characters in many of these books look the same) and books in which a human has drawn or painted unique images that truly reflect the author’s words and the emotions the story evokes. Shortliffe’s images reveal details, like the painted lines on the grey highway crawling through green hills, the fold on the sheet music the wind’s caressing on the piano, and the brown waves beneath Amanda’s toque as she plays for her baby sister.

This book succeeds for the reasons above, but also—and especially—because Lohans has managed to capture the love Amanda has for her cello, and the cello’s reciprocal love for her.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM